GEORGE TOWN, Oct 17 — Hundreds of families were forced out of their homes in the inner city of George Town as rents hit the roof, some by 200 per cent, when the Rent Control Act was abolished in 1999.
This left many of the decaying pre-war shophouses in the inner city vacant and in various stages of neglect.
In some cases, these buildings were turned into functional modernised shops at a time when heritage conservation did not mean anything except a losing battle by heritage watchdog Penang Heritage Trust.
Then, almost a decade later, George Town, which was on the verge of turning into a ghost town as more residents continued to move out to newer housing estates elsewhere, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site jointly with Malacca.
Suddenly, the crumbling century-old shophouses in the inner city became valuable commodities and heritage conservation was no longer PHT's domain.
Decaying heritage buildings were given face lifts, vacant buildings that were previously unwanted were snapped up and George Town was on its way back to its glory days.
Unfortunately, the people who gave George Town its character — the locals who had lived there for generations — are still moving away for various reasons; from career opportunities elsewhere, unaffordable rents to the lure of better living conditions in the suburbs.
According to a baseline survey commissioned by Think City, a total 730 residents moved out of George Town between 2009 and 2013.
The survey found that the 730 who left had been living there for a long time and there was a shift in the inner city demographic towards migrant workers and expatriates.
One of the measures to help these families, especially those in traditional trades, remain in the city is the introduction of Think City's affordable housing scheme.
Think City engaged with one of the house owners, Hock Teik trustees, to pilot an affordable housing scheme involving a row of 10 houses along Armenian Street right in the heart of George Town.
Under the project, Think City started a community development fund (CDF) that pooled funding from Think City, Hock Teik and also the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights (ACHR).
What resulted was a win-win situation for the Hock Teik trustees and the current residents in the row of dilapidated shophouses. The houses were fully restored thanks to the CDF while the residents continued to live there for the same rents.
Think City managed to negotiate a deal between Hock Teik trustees and the residents so that they only pay the same rent for the next 10 years and are given longer leases that can be extended to 10 years.
In return, the residents are required to contribute towards the CDF by taking up soft loans so that there will be enough funds to undertake the massive restoration work for the houses, some of which were in very bad condition.
The final touches to the interior of these houses were finally completed last month and an off-shoot from this scheme is the birth of another pilot project — the sustainable housing scheme.
Project consultant Ng Hooi Seam said Think City already set aside RM100,000 as seed money to introduce a different housing scheme for inner city residents.
“Instead of calling it ‘affordable housing’ which can be confusing, we decided to call it sustainable housing and we have already identified a row of three shophouses in Little India for the pilot project,” she said.
The RM100,000 by Think City is not a big sum and this is because it was not meant to be a grant programme, unlike the recently concluded RM20 million George Town Grants Programme (GTGP).
“We are using it as the capital sum to loan out to tenants and house owners as the starter sum to restore the houses together and then they will have to repay the sum interest-free so that we can use it to loan to others,” she said.
Put simply, it is almost like the affordable housing scheme in Armenian Street where the tenants and house owner pooled their resources together with Think City into the CDF.
“Of course, for tenants and house owners to agree to this, we will need to engage in a lot of dialogue sessions and discussions so that all parties can come to a mutually agreeable arrangement,” she said.
She added that many pre-war shophouse owners are clan associations or small kongsis that barely have any extra funds to restore their properties.
“Often, these properties fall into disrepair as the owners cannot afford to restore them and the tenants are also equally unable,” she said.
For example, the three shophouses along Queen Street in Little India are all in various stages of disrepair.
“The shophouses belonged to the Toi Shan trustees and they don’t have enough funds to restore these houses which are rented to tenants who also cannot afford the restorantion,” she said.
So, the tenants took the loan from Think City to pay for the restoration works and in return, they use this as a bargaining chip with the house owner, Toi Shan trustees, to get longer leases at a fixed rental rate for a certain number of years.
“This way, the shophouses are restored, the tenants get to continue to stay or run their businesses there and the house owner does not have to be concerned about restoration costs,” she said.
The three shophouses are now undergoing restoration works and it is expected to be completed by the end of next month.
“We hope to introduce this programme to as many pre-war shophouses in the heritage zone as possible so that we can continue to keep the people and trades within the city while at the same time, restore dilapidated houses,” she said.
The next house to participate in the programme is a three-storey shophouse along Church Street, also owned by Toi Shan trustees.
“We are thinking of turning it into a starter home for locals who have to move out from their current homes in the city or even for young local families who wish to live in the inner city,” she said.
Close to 75 per cent of the pre-war shophouses in the heritage city were rented out which presents many layers of issues from verbal tenancy agreements to sub-lets by the main tenant so Think City faces a huge task tackling these cases.
Another main issue Think City is facing is in reaching out to those tenants or house owners who are having problems but do not know whom to approach for help.
“So, we hope that with the Armenian Street project and now this Queen Street project, more will know about our sustainable housing scheme and come forward to seek assistance,” she said.
Think City is a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional and was first formed in 2009 as a special purpose vehicle to implement the GTGP.
Due to its success in breathing life back to George Town through the GTGP and its various urban regeneration programmes, Think City is now expanding its programmes to other areas such as Butterworth on the mainland and Kuala Lumpur.
